鼠尾薹草 shu wei tai cao

Carex myosurus subsp. spiculata Boott.

Rhizome woody. Culms tufted, robust, 80-120 × ca. 0.3 cm, trigonous, scabrid, leafy below middle. Leaves longer than culms, flat, 5-7 mm wide, glabrous abaxially, scabrid adaxially; basal persistent leaf sheaths dark brown, fibriform. Involucral bracts leafy, longer than inflorescence, long sheathed. Panicle compound, 20-30 cm, 3-6-branched; inflorescence branches racemose, single, 5-8 cm, 2-4-spiked; peduncles of inflorescence branches tenuous, 3-11 cm; inflorescence axes triquetrous, scabrid; bractlets glumelike. Spikes single, bisexual and androgynous, cylindric, 20-60 × 3.5-4.5 mm; male part of spike 1/4-1/2 length of or very rarely equaling female part; female part with dense and numerous flowers; male glumes pale green, oblong-lanceolate, 3.5-4 mm, membranous; female glumes green or pale green at middle and pale brown laterally, oblong, 2.5-3 mm, papery, with 1 scabrid midrib, upper margin hyaline, apex acuminate, shortly awned. Utricles pale green, longer than glumes, obovate-lanceolate, trigonous, 4-4.5 mm, papery, with several fine veins, glabrous or lateral keels hairy, base attenuate, subsessile, apex shortly beaked, beak 1/5-1/4 length of utricle, orifice minutely 2-toothed. Nutlet dark brown at maturity, closely enclosed in utricle, elliptic, trigonous, base shortly stipitate, apex nearly not apiculate; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3.

Evergreen forests and forest margins; 1200-2000 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [India, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam].